Open Your Eyes really was a nightmare. And The Ladder was a similar nightmare, and Magnification was a nightmare too.[...] The type of problems we had making those records was motivated by the story of the '80s and '90s [...] "Owner of a Lonely Heart", which is basically a pop song by Yes, and what that left was a scar that could not be removed. The group was desperate for a hit, and I was not. I did not care about having a hit [...] I want Yes to write symphonies, orchestrally, in a large format, and not be worried about radio play, about a cliche pop song [...]. Those songs were so far beneath Yes's talents. Yes's talent is not in writing hit singles, we are not that sort of group and never would have gotten anywhere being so. I think the Yes legacy has more to do with the '70s.

Oder die:

"[We should] not waste time on songs like "Don't Go". It was a mistake, we do not have to push into the world of pop music".

"We wanted to really break into a bigger audience again [wozu denn noch?] and I thought that album was perfect for breaking into a newer audience [wie kann man denn bloß darauf kommen!]. But, unfortunately there wasn't the pop song, the radio song that everybody wanted [wasn't? Da gibt's doch kaum was anderes auf dem Album!]. [...] You look at it 6 months later and wish we'd've thought about maybe making a more accessible song in the commercial sense." [Weil Ihr was wollt? Mit sechzig, grauen Haaren und Wohlstandsbauch einen Welthit haben? Wo lebt Ihr denn!]